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More artisans are turning to salvaged wood

By Ellen Moorhouse Special to the Star

Fri., Feb. 3, 2012

Last weekend, I took a quick trip to the Interior Design Show where I took refuge in Studio North, the section where local artisans hang out.

I must confess to a certain fatigue with our consumer society’s obsession for decor, the constantly changing fashions that make colour and furniture choices look dated so quickly. So why not look to the handcrafted, and yes, more expensive, but artistic pieces that will last.

Cherrywood Studio's Barb Benoit shows off a spectacular walnut table, crafted from a black walnut that had to be taken down in a High Park backyard. (ELLEN MOORHOUSE PHOTO)

Just as I found at the One of a Kind Show last November, the go-local trend is gaining momentum among woodworkers, as is the practice of using salvaged materials.

Rob Day, of Carroll Street Studio (www.carrollstreet.ca), was sitting at a table he had made from two-by-fours torn out of a Rosedale home. (Renovator Greening Homes sends discarded materials his way.)

A native of the New York City area and with a history degree from NYU, Day picked up the skills of his craft on the job in woodworking shops. Marriage brought him to Toronto.

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He started using reclaimed lumber a few years ago, he says, and now refuses to work with certain exotic woods, including anything imported from Africa. He has also begun incorporating his wood scraps and old lath into art pieces.

The table ($1,800), bench ($350) and stools ($250) in his booth were from his Wharton collection, inspired by American sculptor Wharton Esherick, whose influential furniture designs evolved over decades from the Arts and Crafts style, through Cubist to curvilinear shapes.

Day, who likes working with homeowners on custom designs, has his studio at 50 Carroll St.

He was showcasing his art pieces, made from old B.C. cedar lath, which he sands, finishes with beeswax and resin and lays down in strips. He also uses lime plaster from Italy, a centuries-old favorite for making reliefs, to add texture and interest to the tiles. Playing games of tic-tac-toe with his kids, 4 and 6, inspired some of his imagery. A one-foot-square piece costs $250; a two- by three-foot panel, $2,100.

Twins Jason and Lars finished the surface with hemp oil from Orillia. They also use tried-and-true products such as linseed oil and pine resin, as well as beeswax from a Toronto source.

Also in the booth were distinctive chandeliers crafted from branches.

The Dresslers don’t spend time hunting for old materials, but if they come across some, like a slatted wood conveyor belt left in an old felt factory at Dupont St. and Lansdowne Ave., they’ll use it. That belt became benches ($2,200), which they continue to make using old church pews for slats.

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Both brothers were trained as engineers. Jason studied furniture-making at Sheridan College, and the two have been in business since 2003. They’re at 225 Sterling Rd., Unit 16.

The table, priced at $8,200, was sitting on a complex base of curved steel.

“It’s the base that has caused such a stir in this show,” said Barb Benoit. She and Steve Meschino — partners in life and in business — run Cherrywood Studio (www.cherrywoodstudio.ca) from their home in rural King.

Benoit says a number of arborists will contact them when a majestic hardwood specimen is doomed. Meschino mills and dries the wood, then turns it into these one-of-a-kind pieces.

A former vice president in information systems, he started tinkering after his company was sold and got serious about table making a few years ago when a big tree had to come down in a friend’s Leaside yard.

It’s certainly gratifying to see the resources such as these old trees and century old lumber being used by these artisans. For sure, next time I have to remove some lath or century-old studs, I’ll try to find a home for the discards.

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